THEATER; Countdown to a Play Written to Order

Published: June 18, 2006

YOUNGBLOOD, a collective of playwrights under 30, recently devised a novel way to raise money. The team held an auction on eBay offering to write a play about the winning bidder and stage it at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

As it turned out, the auction was just the first of many wrinkles in the production, which opened this month and runs through July 1. The variables included eight writers working separately, an unknown subject, a cast of seven unpaid actors and a down-to-the wire schedule. While many Off Off Broadway troupes take less than two months from first rehearsal to opening night, as Youngblood did, most of them usually start with a script. Steven McElroy chronicled the life of ''The True Life Story of [Your Name Here].''

46 DAYS TO GO

Tom Ritchford, 43, a software engineer for Google, enters the auction, partly as a lark and partly as a way to tell the story of his parents, who both died of AIDS. He wins with a bid of $521, though he said he was willing to pay twice that. The show will now be known as ''The True Life Story of [Your Name Here]: Tom Ritchford.''

38 DAYS TO GO

The playwrights, led by R. J. Tolan and Graeme Gillis, the collective's artistic directors, wait in a Midtown bar to meet the auction winner. Their main concern is a boring subject. Mr. Ritchford bustles in late. He is energetic, nervous, speaks quickly with a British accent and flashes a big grin. Mr. Gillis turns to another writer: ''We're golden.'' Mr. Ritchford talks about himself for over an hour. He says little about his parents and much about his relationships with younger women.

37 DAYS TO GO

The playwright Annie Baker and other writers have a problem. As she puts it in an e-mail message, ''I Did Not Love Tom Ritchford.'' While another playwright, Qui Nguyen, contemplates withdrawing, Ms. Baker incorporates her predicament into a scene and bases a character on herself.

27 DAYS TO GO

In the midst of three weeks spent on the script Youngblood interviews Mr. Ritchford at his Brooklyn home. He describes the writers, with their many questions, as ''a collective girlfriend.'' Meanwhile Mr. Nguyen has returned to the project.

12 DAYS TO GO

At a Williamsburg bar actors read a scene about Mr. Ritchford and his friend Pierre, who committed suicide years ago. Though the auction terms state that the winner has no control over the show, Mr. Ritchford tells an actor he's not playing Pierre right. Still, he is moved to tears: ''In the balance I was happy.''

8 DAYS TO GO

The cast is short one actor, the script consists of eight scenes that aren't finished, and the artistic directors are still struggling to link them. Rehearsals start anyway.

7 DAYS TO GO

An actor who was to play Mr. Ritchford in several scenes leaves for paying work. Now the cast is down two actors, but Mr. Tolan is not upset: Youngblood knows others accustomed to its ''kamikaze timetable.''

6 DAYS TO GO

The final two actors are cast.

2 DAYS TO GO

Mr. Ritchford shares the script with Talia Cohen, 19, whom he describes as ''a friend who in my wildest dreams I'd like to be my girlfriend.'' Although a scene sending up Mr. Ritchford and the women in his life calls a character based on Ms. Cohen ''a barely legal co-ed,'' she e-mails Mr. Ritchford: ''Tom it's amazing. Absolutely beautiful.''

THE DAY BEFORE

The tech rehearsal is rough and lasts until midnight. Afterward, Mr. Gillis and Mr. Tolan (the director as well as the set, costume, sound and lighting designer) work three more hours, trimming the script and adjusting props and costumes.

OPENING NIGHT

Like the cast and crew, Mr. Ritchford is nervous, ''as if I were going on myself instead of just showing up.'' He sits in the front row and watches the finished product, which includes scenes from his childhood, his parents' deaths and his recent past. One aspect stands out for him, though, and at the end he stands up to announce to the audience, which includes friends and co-workers, ''There were no under-age girls.''

POSTMORTEM

Mr. Tolan reports that Youngblood is interested in staging someone else's ''True Life Story.'' As for Mr. Ritchford, he signaled his approval on opening night by increasing his investment: he bought pitchers of beer for the Youngblood team.